Environmentalist writer shocked to find his book wrapped in plastic

We live in a world covered in plastic. Plastic packaging, shrink-wrap, containers, even our garbage dumps -- all smothered in plastic. Walt has considerable sympathy with the environmentalists and eco-wienies who say this has got to stop. One such is British writer Martin Dorey, author of No. More. Plastic.: What You Can Do to Make a Difference – the #2minutesolution (Penguin, 2018).

In 2009, Mr Dorey launched the "2 Minute Beach Clean campaign" to encourage people to pick up marine litter. He also maintains the No More Plastic website, encouraging people to find ways to use less plastic. On the landing page we read, "We call on our favorite brands to find innovative alternatives." Who could argue with that?

Well... the US distributors of No. More. Plastic. seem to have a problem with that statement. According to a recent report in The Telegraph, Mr Dorey was not just dismayed but furious to find that his book is being sold in the Excited States of America nicely wrapped in shrink-wrap!

In an Instagram post, Mr Dorey called the distributor's decision an "absolute shambles", adding, "It undoes all our hard work and proves once again that we are using plastic with our eyes closed. We toiled hard on this. We worked with the printer to make it one of the most environmentally friendly books this year. And then this!"

Mr Dorey told The Telegraph, "I know my publishers are working hard to stop this in future but it still happens further down the line. It makes me very sad indeed that we are so clever, but so stupid." The publishing house, Penguin, said "We hope this image makes people stop and think as we head into a busy Christmas period." They promised to contact the US distributors to get them to stop using the plastic covering.

The final word goes to Mr Dorey. "The point is that this book is about no more plastic and some idiot shrink-wrapped it in plastic without thinking. We're sleep-walking into oblivion with plastic and we need to change everything from the bottom up. We need to understand that this is not good enough."

Further reading (added 9/6/19): "Oops! Missed World Oceans Day", WWW 9/6/19.